quodlibet – Early Music Muse

Three Ravens and Twa Corbies: the transformations of a traditional song from the 17th to the 20th century

Ian Pittaway Alarc’h An (Swan The), Billy MacGee MacGore, Billy Magee Magar, Billy Magee Magaw, Billy McGee McGaw, Bonnie Doon, Buffalo Gals, Caledonian Hunt’s Delight, Child ballads, Child Francis James, Christy's Minstrels, Cobbold William ‘New Fashions’, diddling, folk music, jigging, lilting, lute, Melismata (Thomas Ravenscroft), mouth music, non-lexical vocables, port à beul, portaireacht bhéil, quodlibet, Ravenscroft Thomas, Scott Sir Walter, Sharp Cecil, Steeleye Span, Straloch lute manuscript, There Were Three Blackbirds, There Were Three Cows, There were three Ravens, There Were Two Cows, Three Black Crows, Three Blackbirds, Three Cows, Three Ravens, traditional music, Twa Corbies, Two Cows, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Ye banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon 1st April 20263rd April 2026 0 Comment

There were three Ravens first appeared in print in Melismata, a book of songs compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft, published in 1611. A previous article, There were three Ravens: sublime love and ridiculous riddles, explored the layers of meaning in the song, found through its contemporaneous cultural references, and the comically bizarre interpretations offered by some modern authors.

This second article traces the many transformations of the song in the oral tradition from the 17^th to the 20^th century, with videos, soundfiles and music in staff notation. This includes the version printed by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1611; a different version included in a quodlibet (song medley) by William Cobbold in c. 1620; its Scottish metamorphosis, Twa Corbies, in the 18^th and 19^th century; 19^th century variants in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, and Scotland; a 19^th century American minstrel show parody, sung to the tune of Bonnie Doon, which then spread in the oral tradition in the USA and England; a 19^th century US version sung to several variants of When Johnny Comes Marching Home; and 20^th century variants sung in Scotland, the USA, and Canada.

We conclude with some reflections on the changes the song has undergone over the centuries.

L’homme armé / The armed man: the remarkable life of a 15th century song and its contemporary resonance

Ian Pittaway armed man, Aron Pietro, Busnois Antoine, Busnoys Antoine, Dracula, Il sera pour vous, Jenkins Karl, L’homme armé, lute, quodlibet, renaissance, Vlad the Impaler 27th September 201614th March 2026 5 Comments

L’homme armé – The armed man – has but one verse and a fabulous melody. It is like a door ajar, inviting us into a menacing world: “Everywhere it has been proclaimed that each man shall arm himself with a coat of iron mail. The armed man should be feared.” We don’t know its origin or who composed it, only that it emerged in the middle of the 15^th century as a secular song in the French language. It enjoyed huge popularity across Europe among composers of masses, who incorporated its melody as a cantus firmus. Why did this single verse about fearing the armed man have such unprecedented resonance? The answer is in a disastrous military defeat in 1453 which cut to the very heart of renaissance cultural identity, a mirror to events and issues which strike at the core of our international identity today.

With a video of the melody arranged for lute, this article outlines the history and meaning of the song from the 15^th century until the present day, including the roles of Sultan Mehmet II, Pope Pius II, and the sadly all-too-real Dracula, Vlad the Impaler.